Roots to Canvas is a staff-led BIPOC affinity group of Young Audiences of New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. We aim to cultivate a supportive community that empowers artists and educators of color to explore every facet of their artistic expression while celebrating their diversity, creativity, and individuality.

Panels and Events

Cultural Identity and Beyond is a virtual panel and the first event produced by YANJEP’s new BIPOC Affinity Group, Roots to Canvas! Join us Friday, Feb. 2 from 11 am to 12 pm EST as three artists and educators of color discuss creating culturally specific work as well as breaking beyond cultural barriers.

Artists of color are often expected to be the experts on all art forms connected to their communities and people, to exclusively do culturally specific work or to deprioritize their work that does not have explicit ties to their ethnic cultural identity. And on the other end, many artists truly do feel a duty to share the art of their people, are most at home sharing ethnically and culturally specific work and choose to prioritize this work. Many artists are somewhere in between. In this panel, Hanzi Han (visual artist), Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta (poet) and Jarrod Scott (singer/actor) will discuss their own relationships with these topics, as well as what they’ve seen or experienced in the work of other BIPOC artists. This event is free to attend.

Three artist/educators of color discuss the challenges of creating culturally specific work, and reaching beyond it.